"Far from blaming you,"

replied the Princess of Cleves, "for repeating the histories of past

times, I lament, Madam, that you have not instructed me in those of the

present, nor informed me as to the different interests and parties of

the Court. I am so entirely ignorant of them, that I thought a few

days ago, the Constable was very well with the Queen."

"You was extremely mistaken," answered Madam de Chartres, "the Queen hates the

Constable, and if ever she has power, he'll be but too sensible of it;

she knows, he has often told the King, that of all his children none

resembled him but his natural ones."

"I should never have suspected

this hatred," said the Princess of Cleves, "after having seen her

assiduity in writing to the Constable during his imprisonment, the joy

she expressed at his return, and how she always calls him Compere, as

well as the King."

"If you judge from appearances in a Court," replied

Madam de Chartres, "you will often be deceived; truth and appearances

seldom go together. "But to return to the Duchess of Valentinois, you know her name is

Diana de Poitiers; her family is very illustrious, she is descended

from the ancient Dukes of Aquitaine, her grandmother was a natural

daughter of Lewis the XI, and in short she possesses everything that is

great in respect of birth.

St. Valier, her father, had the unhappiness

to be involved in the affair of the Constable of Bourbon, which you

have heard of; he was condemned to lose his head, and accordingly was

conducted to the scaffold: his daughter, viz., the Duchess, who was

extremely beautiful, and who had already charmed the late King, managed

so well, I don't know by what means, that she obtained her father's

life; the pardon was brought him at the moment he was expecting the

fatal blow; but the pardon availed little, for fear had seized him so

deeply, that it bereft him of his senses, and he died a few days after.

His daughter appeared at Court as the King's mistress; but the Italian

expedition, and the imprisonment of the present Prince, were

interruptions to his love affair. When the late King returned from

Spain, and Madam the Regent went to meet him at Bayonne, she brought

all her maids of honour with her, among whom was Mademoiselle de

Pisselen, who was since Duchess d'Etampes; the King fell in love with

her, though she was inferior in birth, wit and beauty to the Duchess of

Valentinois, and had no advantage above her but that of being very

young. I have heard her say several times, that she was born the same

day Diana de Poitiers was married, but she spoke this in the malice of

her heart, and not as what she knew to be true; for I am much mistaken,

if the Duchess of Valentinois did not marry Monsieur de Breze, at the

same time that the King fell in love with Madam d'Etampes. Never was a

greater hatred than that between these two ladies; the Duchess could

not pardon Madam d'Etampes for having taken from her the title of the

King's mistress; and Madam d'Etampes was violently jealous of the

Duchess, because the King still kept correspondence with her. That

Prince was by no means constant to his mistresses; there was always one

among them that had the title and honours of mistress, but the ladies

of the small band, as they were styled, shared his favour by turns.




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